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Please note New Users will have their posts moderated for a while. Not all activation emails are going out - please use the Contact Us email. Black Spot will only admin when she can't stand the mess any longer. Applicants with no life are welcome to apply.

A device sent from our future back in time limited with a mass of no more than 10000kg and capable of altering the future in favour of the conutry which sends it. Must not be self capable (must be piloted or require human interaction of some kind.) If you have seen the movie biggles where a modern helicopter appears in ww2 you will have a fair idea of what im thinking, a visual displacment, clash of design looks etc. The design must be user friendly for the time into which it is being placed to allow for intuitive operation by people of the time.

A device for a child designed in 2050. Though the child is to see it as a toy/friend, the unit is tasked with the care and monitoring of the child while the parents are absent due to work etc. For the purpose of usability the design must be capable of working in a normal urban environment and interacting with objects designed for human use.

barbaric, low-tech tank. it's brutal, it's medeival-esque, it gets the job done without the aid of sophisticated electronics. WWI meets Conan the barbarian. Describe its role in the conflict that you invent.

The Melee weapon of the not-so-distant future! Allows a skilled warrior to get down and dirty and up close and personal in this modern age of assault rifles and fragmentation grenades. Easily negates the defensive advantages of Kevlar and other Bulletproof garments. Also, it should elicit a "We're fucked" moment from a foe who sees it. Perhaps it comes with some other gear to make it useful, like a Jetpack or shield.

Was looking at The Art of Halo today, and a comment caught my eye in regards to the Chief's armor "We wanted to make it look like a modern tank". Maybe a suit of Armor that'll give a man the stopping power of a tank.

A major undertaking, the purpose of which is to provide the participants, at the end of 12 weeks, with a fully realised race at war. The true benefit of this, is to be able to present in job applications an ability to invent a variety of designs with a shared visual iconography with the intended use being the games industry or mod scene.

Two absolute necessities are required for each design.

First - three orthographic views. These are annoying to some, but would be vital for modellers to work from. It would be part of your job IRL, so get used to it.

Second a colour render as is standard in idotw.

Needless to say, this gives an entrant a great breadth of scope overall for what kind of conflict is being undertaken. Is it civil or inter galactic war?? Humans or aliens? Are your race aliens and what design challenged does that bring. Has davinci been forced to create a new army so that rome might conquer the world. Is an alternate earth fighting an alternate second world war with totally different, but technologically correct designs? Is the whole war fought under water by sub aquatic species??

All that is up to the artist. But once a theme has been settled on, it must be carried through to the rest of the designs.

topics in order

Infantry unit.
The cast iron slug on which the rest of your war machine will ultimately be built. This challenge requires the design of your infantry gear, including helmet etc. It also gives those planning an alien race a chance to flesh out the size , and major design difference in anatomy that might affect future ideas. A rough weapon can be included, but is not the point of the exercise. You would also at this point define some of the basic logos that would be carried through your designs like a national flag or army symbol. The infantry standard may also be an armoured mech suit. In this case all other designs must accomidate this as standard.

Weapons
This covers not every concievable weapon, but rather establishes the basic weapons technology available to you in later designs. Will your weapons be lazers, will they need large heat syncs to cool them then? etc etc. This will provide the visual cues that make your weapons all look like they were made by the same people. And which can be expanded into the weapons mounter on larger vehicles. It provides the beginnings of the restraints which will dictate the iconography of your designs. 3 weapons are required. anti infantry anti mechanical and heavy anti mechanical. e.g when dealing with infantry, ballistics may be sufficent, but when dealing with armour, lasers might be the standard. Light mechanical would use the technology of your anti infantry, say bullets and scale it up. for example, a gatling gun is good , or fighter mounted machine gun in an infantry carriable package.

ground based Troop transport/apc/anti infantry
Utilising the basic ideas of your weapons tech, and your knowledge of your standard troop size, design a vehicle to transport a 4-6 man team. The vehicle must be capable of defending itself. You are limited to only 1 mounted anti infantry gun position. This could be anything from an apc to a jeep like vehicle.

Ground based anti armour design.
This would fit the role of tank, mech or something that would fight from the seabed as opposed to moving through water etc. It would be required by design to be operated by no more than 3 people. You would be limited to one main gun position and two one anti infantry gun positions. The unit should be a balance of firepower, armour and speed.

Anti-aircraft unit
A mobile or entrenched unit designed to disable or destroy large numbers of incoming aircraft.crew of 4. It must be capable of firing for prolonged periods, thus, an emphasis on ammo storage must be placed over defensive abilities or speed if mobile.It could even be a mobile vehicle magnetically sealing to the exterior of a large space vehicle providing anti space figher support.

Vehicle transport
A large airborne vehilce which must be capable of transporting the following.one of your anti armour units or one of your anti air units and
two of your troop transport units
and deploying them to the battlefield. Due to weight restrictions, only 2 light weapons platforms are included in the design itself. Due to its design needs, the vehicle will require a lot of engine power. As a result, armour and offensive ability is compromised. This is where your previous work pays off. This is about designing a vehicle around your other 2. Figuring out the design challenges associated with that. If you have skipped previous works, a default box size for the vehicles which need transport will be provided.

Fighter intercepter
A one man fighter designed for support roles, protection of vehicle transports etc. Depending on your conflict, this could be more akin to a chopper. Undersea this might take the form of a fighter submersible. Speed and weapons are a priority over defence. You are limited to 4 light anti mech , or i heavy anti mech weapon platform.

heavy Fighter /bomber.
A 2 -4 man heavy figher or dedicated bomber designed to attack large targets on the scale of air craft carriers.

Mobile command/attack staging vehicle

this would be a 4 week design.

This covers the basic concept of an aircraft carrier. A massive vehicle designed to carry and deploy the rest of your designs. This could be flying, space based, under water. anything, so long as it sustains and resupplies the compliment of units you assign to it. It must be capable of maintaining the following

This is the big payoff in a way, similar to the vehicle transport, in that you are designing around your other works. Bringing everything together.If you have skipped previous designs, box sizes for units will be made available. Remember to design realistically, assigning space for fuel and ammo storage for the ship itself, and all the vehicles it supports, crew quarters. etc etc etc.

We are looking at something big here, akin to a battlestar or aircraft carrier in scale terms. probably bigger.

The additional time given would demand additional results, in the form of an additional mandatory cutaway diagram. this could be an enterprise like simple side cutaway or an ambitious starwars like uber illustration.

thanks! the idea would be that it wouldnt matter if you were in for one or two and not the rest. if you didnt do the two vehicles required for the vehicle transport for example, and wandered in and wanted to do that, you would simply have to design one to fit vehicles of dimensions set in the topics.

So for people carrying on from previous, they use their own dimensions, and those just having a randow go use dimensions consistent with real military vehicles. It caters to both the causal and the hardcore. hopefully.

I also agree though, that for those who stick it out, a completed series, well illustrated would be a portfolio gem.

personally id be torn between an alternate ww2 , with mecha like designs and just going as proverbs would say 'ape shit' with something utterly sci fi. realistis but futursitic, down the lines of starship troopers. whose starships i loved.

nanobots

Tiny machines (invisible to the naked eye) which are released into the atmosphere to perform a wide variety of tasks. Somethimes the bots can link up to perform larger tasks.

Examples of nanobots:

Spybots - military spec bots designed for espionage, need to be hard to detect
Anti-spy bots - used to detect and destroy spybots (at any one moment there is a war raging between millions of nanobots, often without any human noticing)

NarcBots - travel up the nasal canal into the brain to administer narcotics to the customer (generally frowned upon by authorities)

SexBots - Attach themselves to customers erogenous zones in their billions, and then oscillate at certain frequencies.

Repair bots - repair fellow nanobot.

Remember - these things are SMALL... think of how the tecnology will look on such a small scale.... what materials will be used? how will the bots communicate? how will they be controlled? Fully autonomous or via a remote operator?